X m means fob producing gas



Patented dan. 22, 1929.

@Nien STATES l ATET OFFICE. I

GEORGE L. EEICHHELM, 0E NEW YoEK, NxY., .assIGNoE 'ro THE GAsrEIERCOMPANY;

or ELrzAEE'rH, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION 0E NEW JERSEY.

r MEANs Eon rlnonUcING GAS.

Application filed February 7, 1920. Serial No. 356,880.,

means for prorllhese and'other objects are accomplishedby means of themethod and apparatus disi closed on the accompanying sheet of drawings,in which- Figure 1 1s a vertical sectional view of-apparatus embodyingmy invention and used in the production of gas; a l

Figure 2 'is a sectional view taken 1n the plane of line 2-2 of Figurel;andv lFigure 3 is a sectional View taken in the plane of line 3-'3 ofFigure 1. rIhe various novel features of my .inventio will be apparentfrom the following description and drawings and will be particularlypointed outin the appended claims.

Although -my invention isnot limited'in its application to solid fuel, Iwill describe same i'n connection therewith, it being understood thatliquid fuels may be treated in the same or'similar manner.

In ordinary producer gas practice, wherein solid fuel is used, 'asubstratum of said fuel isffurnished with suicient oxygen to burn,

the products of combustion vtherefrom being cooled by heating the upperstratum. In this heating action the tendency is to crack verysmallparticles of coal from the upper bed,vv

and these small particles are lconveyed in the streams'of products ofcombustion into washers, scrubbers, and the like. The percentage of fuelcarried away in this shapeis en'orlmous, andin most cases it isnecessary to positively extract this coal dust by means of washers andscrubbers, which deprives the gas of its sensible heat.l As may beapprecie ated, this sensible heat is relatively large and must beconsidered seriously as a big factor, becauseA thev higherl thetemperature of a substance which is to be oxidized, the quicker willthis oxidation take place for example if 'iron is heated to 2ll00 F. anda stream ofairis forced through it, the iron, and particularly'thecarbon in it, will burn or oxidize,and the temperature of the moltenmass will rise to as high as 3600o F., proving that the rapid l'oxidation is,combustion in this case; but no one ordinarily would claimthat iron is a fuel. The point which I wish toemphasize in thisconnection is that thef2l`00o in the -above mentioned casein iron isanalogous to the sensible heat in the gas as it leaves the producer.

l Furthermore, in the ordinary producer plant, water seals arefrequently introduced,4

as well as streams of steam, for the purpose of measurably cooling theburning stratum of coal, and thus preventing what is commonly known asslagging', which always occurs where the stream ofv air `passes upthrough the interstices between the coal-and takes a definite path. Forthis reason the ordinary producer must be-stoked very frequently andeaking prevented as much as possible. In addition to this, the commonforms of producer plants receive air and discharge gas at a very lowvelocity, which necessitates a large, cum- .bersomerreceptacld as wellas large and expensive ducts. These are facts 'which commonly exist inthe production of gas from solid fuel as practised generally today.

In 'connection with my invention, liquid or solidz fuel ina finelydivided state is subjected to a relatively rapidly moving heating me'-dium or flame in which the finely divided fuel particles remainsuspended until gasiied, the apparatus used in connection withI thepractice of my method of producing gas e being simple, inexpensive,efficient, an oc# cupying a relatively small amount of space.

By referring to the figures of the drawings, it will be' noted that Ihave shown a receptacle 10 provided 'with a supply chute 11, saidreceptacle l() having an `outlet passageway 12. Rotatably mounted withinthe receptacle 10 is shaft 13 having a feeding screw 14 for forcing thesolid fuel downwardly in the receptacle 10 and to prevent cloggingtherein. Secured to the lower end of the shaft 13 is a movable conicalgrinding member 15 co-operating with a stationary grinding surface 16,by means of which the coal,

ground into a finely divided'state. The degree of fineness into whichthe coal is ground screws 17' which pass throughr laterally' extendingarms of a support 18 which .may be .we will assumeis the fuel beingused, is

may be varied by manipulation of adjusting v fastened yto receptacle 1 0andv bear against portions offa bracket 19 secured -to the shaft 13 by`set screws 20. The fuel after hav.

ing been ground into a finelydivided state passes downwardly throughtheutlet pas-- v sageway 12 into a receptacle 21, in which the fuel istreated y and suspended in a 'heating medium, lsuch' as van extremelyhot'V flame, whereby the fuel is gasiied, Whereupon the gas and productsjofi combustion pass downwardly through a conduit 22 into a relat-ivelylarge ta'nk 23 from which the gases pass through a pipe 24C into awasher, scrubber, or any other suitable cleaning device 25.

i rlhe receptacle 21 is preferably made-of llire-clay and is in theformof a cylinder closed at -the top. rl`he cylindrical receptacle .21nearthe bottom thereof is provided with openings through which aplurality of `burners 26 extend, said burners preferably entering thecylindrical receptacle 21 in substantially a tangential relationship, orat least in a position causing the heating medium or ameissuing from theburners 26 to take a swirling action around in the receptacle 21.

- the ring-shaped pipe 27 andout through the ing furnace, and whensufficient heat is genburners 26. For supplying the air'through the pipe28, a convenient form of rotary pump 30 is provided, pipe 28 forming theexhaust for thepump 30. rlhe supply of air is fur- `nished through theinlet 31 to the blades of the rotary member of the pump, which blades orfans are held against-,the inner periphery of the pump casing. Air beingforced in through the inlet pipe 31 will cause the rotary member of thepump 30 to revolve and the.

air, to pass out through the pipe 28.

In the operation of the device, the gas be turned on, as well as'theair, and the burners 26 will be lighted asin an ordinary melterated, thecoal dropping down through the passageway 12 in a' pulveriz'ed form willbe swirled in a heat medium or flame, the tem- Y perature of which maybe anywhere between 2800o to 3300o F. It readily will be seen that, ldepending upon the velocity of the flame, the

heavier particles `would be forced to thepe-` riphery of the cylindricalreceptacle 21, and

` it'is conceivable that if the feed ofV coal was extremely rapid theparticles might build up on the walls of the receptacle 21, but the'flames project 'against the sides. and consequently this coal would bevery rapidly con- Aature.

quicker .will'be the gasification. As a' result.A of actual experiment,I haveA found that the nceegtaa verted into a gas. Depending,l however,upon l inthe swirl and that each small particle would be surrounded byflame or products of combustion which are at a very high temper- Thehigher the temperature, the

gasication process continues at a very high rate of speed, itv beingpossible to make the reproduction` of gas-is not to be misinterpretedfor an ordinary combustion of powdered coal,

because in-all forms this process has been thev straightway projectionof powdered Coal and dame, and evenjwith very high pressures,`

`ewirl,-during actual operation, I have counted as many as six definitelayers, and to illustrate how long the coal must be suspended in 'theterrific temperatureunder these conditions, it is necessary only tovisualize the average' diameter of the spiral thus formed to be onefoot, the average circumference, therefore, being, roughly speaking,three feet. Six such layers would mean that the coal particlesv wouldbesuspended for eighteen feet etl of travel in a cylinder having as smallaj diameter as one foot.4 The gas Aexpanded from the coal andltheproducts of combustion from the three burners 26 take a path downthrough conduit 2 2 into a relatively large tank 23, the comparativelyrapid-,movement in' the conduit 22 being reduced to anv exceed'inglyslow movement in tank 23 because4 of the very much greater diameterof the latter.

Assuming that all of the carbon has been expended from the coal in thecylindrical receptacle 21, the products ofcombustion and gases'wouldcontain ash, and the purpose for passing thel rapidly swirling gasesinto the large receptacle 23 is to redu'celthe velocity tol give theashv as much time aspossibleto gravitate to the bottom of the tank 23,which is .provided'with a water seal 32 and from which the ash may beextracted without lpermtting the gas to escape. As stated before, thegasesv pass out of the tank 23 through a pipe 24 into any suitablereceptacle 25, which contain a scrubberjor washer, or both.

connection with .the conversion of fixed carbon into gas, it might bestated thatfthe coal industry, at least that part of yit whichvfurnishes coal gas, refers to the coal as havingy -a content of 38percent of volatile matter.

4This means that38 per centof the fuel will distill 0E as gases andvapors. The balance will be coke or fixed carbon and ash. This is due tothe fact that as soon as the gas is conductor of heat. Therefore,'during the cle 'surrounded with a terrilically highly heated.substance, the question of poor conductivity docs not enter measurably,and' hence the sharp line drawn between fixed and volatile carbon mustdisappear'. 1

' In connection with the. swirling'mixture of.

- llame and coal granules, the heavy granules will. be propelled alittle,` probably "rolled along the bottom if heavy enongh,"and againcles.

-will inevitably be forced outwardly and kept there by the centrifugalforce; thatis, they picked up by the stream, so thattheilarfrerparticles will remain in the heated cham er .considerably longer -thanthelight'er parti- The gas passes out of the-coal, v p Y .receptacle tocause said fuel to be suspended i' being several thousand times lighter,will ,fol-

low the courseA down through the centrat outlet conduit 22. Theparticles which are lighterl will not be. forced violently against.

the cylindrical receptacle 21'and will remain suspended in the movingstream, 'Y

It will be noted that the rotary member .of

of the shaft 1 3. This .rotary member'is mounted on. the shaft for thepurpose "of synchronizing the volume of air required forthe combustionvat vthe burners 26 withthe .f

amount of coa'l fed through thepassageway 1'2. It will be apparent' thatthe more ai'r admitted into the pump inlet 31, the greater will be therevolutions of. the rotary member of the pump 30, and consequently theshafft 13, which is the means for harmonizing the coal supply and theair and gas supply because the air from the outlet pipe'28 will besupplied past the end of pipe' 29 having an injector action upon anddrawing the gas through said pipe.

It is my intention to cover all modificap for Supplying Until gasbustine. g

produced fromsaid receptacle, said conduitV aving its communicationwith. said recep tacle at a level. higher than said flame supv plymeans, and synchronously operatingme,

chanical means.' for controlling said carbon supplyin'gmeans and saidflame supplying f means.

ing flame toisaid fuel at the bottom of said oduced from saidreceptacle,

2.v In gas gen rating apparatus, in combination, `a gas .generatingreceptacle, means' .for supplying fuel in a-finelydividedstate to lsaidreceptacle, means's nchronized with said Afuel-supplying means orsupplying a swirl-A means for conducting the com- `said meansv havingits communication with Y said receptaclev4 at' a hioher level than there-l gion ofl said swirling with said receptacle throughsaid means,'said the pump 3() is mounted upon th upper end :tank being below Saidreceptacle and 0f flaamea tank connected larger capacity than saidreceptacle, whereby the velocity ofthe products of gasification will'bereduced, to permit the deposit of ash.

3. A gas."generator for producing combus- 'tible gas comprising, incombination, a cylindrical gas'generating receptacle 'having its axisvertically placed, mechanical means for mechanicalF-means forsynchronously controlling the supply -of fuel-and the .supply oalr..Signed at New York, New York, this 27th day of January, 1920.

- lGEORGE L.

